1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a process of separating coal particles from alcohol by single stage flashing.
2. Description of the Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 4,030,893 refers to my co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 615,697 which discloses and claims a stabilized pseudo-thixotropic suspensoid of coal and alcohol which is employed to solve the problem of transporting coal through a pipeline. The coal and alcohol suspensoid also is described in the newsletter, Energy Studies, published by the Center for Energy Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, Volume 3, No. 2, November-December 1977.
From an economical standpoint it is desirable to separate the transported coal from the alcohol carrier and use only the coal as a fuel. From a practical standpoint, the separation process must be an economical one which allows separation of large quantities of materials.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,030,893 discloses a separation process called "flashing" which is well known in the prior art. Basically the flashing process consists of dropping the pressure of a heated liquid to a sufficiently low pressure so that a portion of the liquid spontaneously vaporizes, therefore effecting a drop in temperature which stabilizes the remaining liquid at its saturation pressure condition imposed by the process. Only a relatively small percentage of the liquid phase material may be converted to vapor in conventional flashing. Therefore, in order to convert most, or perhaps all, of a mass of liquid to vapor, several sequential cycles of liquid pressurizing, heating, then pressure reduction, followed by removal of the vaporized portion must be performed.
Such a process requiring a number of sequential cycles is not economical for separating the coal from the alcohol carrier particularly when large quantities of material are involved which would be the case in the pipeline transporation of the material.